Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX

Can anyone help me find a good distro ?

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Calum:
Thank you for that review tex! it is excellent to finally see someone saying that slackware is a good distro.

i am sick of seeing people say how they wouldn't recommend it to a new linux user etc. in my opinion slackware is straightforward and does exactly what it says on the tin. it has the advantage as well that in a world of increasingly distro specific and GUI centric configuration tools, slackware is comparably more straightforward to configure, and does what a person would expect any *nix system to do, without too much extra distro specific research. with an ethic like that, it can't fail to be a good choice for a certain (and reasonably sized) segment of the potential linux userbase.

worker201:
Well, but Slackware has a default runlevel of 3, which means command line interface.  Lots of people will be scared shitless just to see it.  All the curses config screens can be kinda daunting at first as well.

Of course the question has never been answered - if you can't use a command line (or navigate a curses menu), should you even be allowed to use Linux?

piratePenguin:

--- Quote from: worker201 ---Of course the question has never been answered - if you can't use a command line (or navigate a curses menu), should you even be allowed to use Linux?
--- End quote ---
Uhh, "Linux" (as well as "GNU/Linux") is a massive generalisation and one area the hundreds of individual operating systems based on GNU/Linux do not share is usability.

New users who aren't all that interested in how things work should definitely stay away from Slackware (and Gentoo etc), while not necessarily Ubuntu (and Fedora Core etc).

Slackware is a great OS for those who are new to GNU/Linux and are interested in how things work, surely among the best ever for this purpose. That's why I spent something like six months on it (after being amazed by what I seen on Mandrake) and then went to Linux From Scratch and then to it-just-fucking-works Ubuntu.

H_TeXMeX_H:
Well, one thing I'd like to say is that if you are new and want to install Slackware, do read a guide before you try ... something like this (this will also help with the fear of curses interface and command line). Nothing in Slackware is more difficult than in any other distro ... and oftentimes is simpler and easier than most other distros.

The way I do things (I don't read the manual :)) I probably would not be able to install slackware without first using a more GUI intensive distro, but with plenty of opportunity to learn command-line (like FC ... too bad it kinda blows :()

Calum:

--- Quote from: worker201 ---Well, but Slackware has a default runlevel of 3, which means command line interface.  Lots of people will be scared shitless just to see it.  All the curses config screens can be kinda daunting at first as well.
--- End quote ---
oh dear. anybody that can't figure out how to type startx, or init 4 shouldn't be using slackware (or *ix) in my opinion. That's beneath the level of acceptable newbieness. In fact actually, i wouldn't be so brazen as to say they shouldn't be using it, but i would say that if they do use slack and they don't have at least a page of helpful one/two word commands to familiarise themselves with then they should expect a bit of a learning curve.


--- Quote ---Of course the question has never been answered - if you can't use a command line (or navigate a curses menu), should you even be allowed to use Linux?
--- End quote ---
in a word, no, but see above.


--- Quote from: piratePenguin ---New users who aren't all that interested in how things work should definitely stay away from Slackware (and Gentoo etc), while not necessarily Ubuntu (and Fedora Core etc).
--- End quote ---
they sure should. If they don't want to know how their PC works, then they should probably get somebody else to use it for them (check their emails, listen to their music etc). I am sure these don't-want-to-know-how-it-works users have had to deal with a number of issues and quirks during their windows life, so they can't complain that linux isn't suddenly as smooth as silk for them, especially if they won't make the effort to shift mentally to the new paradigm.


--- Quote ---Slackware is a great OS for those who are new to GNU/Linux and are interested in how things work, surely among the best ever for this purpose. That's why I spent something like six months on it (after being amazed by what I seen on Mandrake) and then went to Linux From Scratch and then to it-just-fucking-works Ubuntu.
--- End quote ---
and most people probably should try out a few to see what they think.

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